Decolonising Feminism(s): Wāhine Māori: Pre- and post colonialism in Aotearoa New Zealand

This blog is part of the series “Decolonising Feminism(s)”, hosted by the Gender & International Politics program at Polis180.

A blog post by Lara Brett

In this blog post, Lara Brett examines how colonialism has shaped the experiences of wāhine Māori.

Who are the mana wāhine? 

The Māori are the Indigenous people of Aotearoa, New Zealand, thought to have first settled there from Polynesia in around 1250. In the Māori language, mana wāhine (loosely translated as women of (spiritual) power) refers to the intersection of being a woman and Māori. We can view the term mana wahine as a branch of Māori feminism, encompassing the broad experiences of wāhine Māori (Māori women). However, this term is not easy to define, resulting from the difficulties in representing “the multifarious nature of ‘mana’”, including concepts such as power or prestige, with spiritual connotations. Wahine can also take on many meanings, including female, woman and wife (plural is wāhine). It also „refers to only one of the times and spaces that Māori women move through in the course of their lives.”

Prof. Linda Tuhiwai Te Rina Smith identified four crucial aspects of mana wāhine feminism:

• Wairua – spirituality, central to a Māori woman’s identity 
• Whānau – the extended family and importance of community
• State – the impact of State and colonial structures on Māori women
• Indigenous and White Women’s Discourses – the cultural, historical and decolonial needs of Māori women

Colonisation

British colonisers settled earnestly in Aotearoa from 1840, where wāhine Māori faced double oppression on the basis of their gender and ethnicity. The colonisers used brutal methods, such as rape, to subjugate Māori women. In 1840, Te Tiriti o Waitangi (Treaty of Waitangi), between the British Crown and hundreds of Māori Chiefs, was meant to ensure the peaceful coexistence of both parties, the British and the Māori. With the implementation of the Treaty many Māori women were “disallowed or discouraged from signing by the men who were charged with collecting signatures”. This undermined their previously “active” role in politics. Out of the 540 Māori signatories, only 13 were women. 

The effects of colonialism were so severe that the Māori population as a whole was reduced by 50% in 1891, compared to 1840. This was due to the spread of European diseases, as well as war and land loss. In 1867, the Native Schools Act made English the sole language in schools in New Zealand, effectively quashing the use of the indigenous language te reo Māori. 

The Māori language does not rely on strict gender definitions, as, e.g., the German language does – it uses ia for both ‘he’ and ‘she’. Hence, it is difficult to use our notions of gender within the Māori context. Before the arrival of Europeans, gender roles within Māori communities were “distinct”, but “not mutually exclusive or necessarily hierarchical”. Sadly, “early white” ethnographers from Europe often “misperceived, deliberately misrepresented, or simply erased altogether the presence and importance of wāhine Māori”. These Māori women held prominent positions within their communities. Generally, they had greater freedoms than Pākehā women (New Zealand women of European descent), working collectively to take care of their whānau (community). Māori societies traditionally centre around a communal whānau, but colonisation imposed Western, nuclear family norms (two parents and two children). 

The right to vote

Aotearoa was the first country to grant women suffrage, for Māori and Pākehā, in 1893, following efforts by passionate suffragettes. However, history has often overlooked the contributions of wāhine Māori, who worked with trade unions and groups like the Women’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) to gain the right to vote in the New Zealand House of Representatives and Te Kotahitanga (the Māori Parliament). Writer Kahu Kutia noted that suffrage was part of wider efforts to remove colonialism and oppose “the prevalence of whiteness and masculinity in government”. Whilst some wāhine Māori shared the WCTU’s concerns over alcohol abuse, they were generally motivated by the efforts to oppose colonialism and regain land rights. Activist Meri Te Tai Mangakāhia spearheaded these efforts, as the first known woman to address Te Kotahitanga.  

Gaining suffrage was thus an important, but fraught step towards cultural, political and legal recognition for wāhine Māori, with the first wahine Māori, Iriaka Rātana, entering Parliament in 1949, thirty years after women were first admitted. Today, Parliament upholds a seven-seat quota for Māori members, but wāhine Māori remain underrepresented. 

Aotearoa post-colonisation 

In 1907, Aotearoa became a dominion of the British Empire but did not gain independence until 1947. New Zealand citizenship was first established in 1949. 

In the twentieth century, the Māoris rapidly migrated to urban areas, “perhaps the most rapid rural-to-urban migration of any national indigenous population”. 

This urbanisation, mostly taking place in the 1950s and 1960s, again disintegrated the communal whānaus, leading to greater individualisation and difficulties in “intergenerational knowledge transmission”.

From the 1960s to the 1980s, the movement for Māori rights gained in strength, with Māori anti-racism groups launching in predominantly urban areas. Student groups, such as Ngā Tamatoa and Te Reo Māori Society, from Auckland and Victoria Universities, respectively, campaigned for the introduction of Māori language and culture in schools. Te Petihana Reo Māori prompted the government to launch optional te reo Māori courses. The language became an official language of Aotearoa New Zealand in 1987. 

In 21st century Aotearoa, wāhine Māori constitute around 17% of the female population. 69% of wāhine Māori are thought to have faced discrimination. Whilst the New Zealand government is working to represent and reflect Indigenous women on the international stage, and “working collaboratively with wāhine Māori”, there is still much to be done. Wāhine Māori continue to face economic and social discrimination, such as being more likely to be imprisoned than Pākehā women. 49% of wāhine Māori experience physical or sexual intimate partner violence in their lifetime. In November 2025, Māori leader Lady Tureiti Moxon submitted a complaint over the New Zealand government’s discrimination towards the Māoris to the United Nations’ Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. 

Wāhine Māori theory compared to Western feminism

In the 1980s and 1990s, there was a general view that feminism “was anti-Māori”. This followed decades of discrimination and fears of further ‘othering’. It is also important to note that Māori women may have different views of what “freedom” and feminism mean to them, which may not align with those of Pākehā women, again, due to different cultural contexts. 

For some wāhine Māori, feminism was a Pākehā idea and hostile towards Māori men. This interpretation casts the concept as a struggle for white women, deviating from the issues affecting Māori women. 

Naomi Simmonds has acknowledged a “shift of Western feminism from the monocultural bias of the 1970s and 1980s to a feminism that is concerned with multiplicity and diversity”, which facilitates connections with Māori feminist movements. Other academics such as Patricia Johnston and Hine Waitere emphasise that Pākehā feminists can support their Māori counterparts in their feminist journeys, whilst experiencing different issues. 

Simmonds advocates for wāhine Māori to question their internalised “patriarchal and colonial ideologies” and define their own values. 

She also underlines the active efforts of Māori women against colonialism, linking such efforts to “the wider indigenous struggle” against discrimination and subjugation. 

Research on “Māori women’s embodied, spatial and spiritual experiences from an explicitly mana wahine standpoint” remains limited. This is all the more sad given that wāhine Māoris’ differences have been usually defined “by non-Māori men”. Indeed, Māori academics have highlighted mana wahine’s uniqueness.

Conclusion

On the whole, there is a need for feminist theory that acknowledges the parallels between wāhine Māori and other Indigenous women, as well as their agency and their unique experiences. Wāhine Māori have played a prominent role within Aotearoa’s feminist and Māori rights movements. Their agency continues to be threatened by government policies that arguably replicate exclusionary colonialist structures. 

Hence, there is a need for civil society movements, both Māori and Pākehā, to continue advocating for equality, and for all feminist and civil society movements to recognise the distinct nature, struggle and history of Māori women. 

Lara Brett is a British-New Zealander (Pākehā) and Co-Head of the Gender and International Politics programme at Polis180.

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Previously from the blog series “Decolonising Feminism(s)”

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